‍New Governor For Telangana Likely Yediyurappa To Take Charge Soon!

The most valid reports coming from Delhi sources are to be believed, Telangana is likely to get new Governor in a week or two in place of existing Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.

According to these reports, Tamilisai, who has been holding additional responsibility of holding the gubernatorial post for Pondicherry, reportedly requested the Centre during her recent visit to New Delhi that she be relieved from Telangana.

Apparently, Tamilisai told the Centre that she would be more comfortable in Pondicherry, which is the neighbouring state of her native place Tamil Nadu. 
The Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, which is a state-cum-Union Territory, is more powerful than the Governor of any other state.

Right now, Tamilisai is spending more time in Pondicherry, where there is a coalition government comprising NR Congress and the BJP, is in place. 
The Centre is looking for a full time Lt Governor for Pondicherry and Tamilisai is lobbying for the same.

Sources said the Centre has agreed to Tamilisai’s request and is likely to appoint her as full-time Lt Governor of Pondicherry by August end or September first week. 

In that event, the Centre has to appoint a new Governor for Telangana.
According to sources, in all probability, the Centre might appoint former Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa as the new Governor of Telangana. 

Yediyurappa recently stepped down as the chief minister of Karnataka to make way for Basavaraj Bommai.

At the time of relinquishing the chief minister post, the BJP high command reportedly assured to give a respectable post to Yediyurappa. 

“In all probability, he would be made the Governor of Telangana. Since it is a neighbouring state of Karnataka, Yediyurappa can still have a say in Karnataka politics, albeit indirectly,” sources said. #KhabarLive #hydnews

‍‍‍‍‍The Messiah Of Dalits, Crusader Praveen Kumar Vow To Change The Political Scenario In Telangana

The retired IPS officer Dr R S Praveen Kumar recently joined the Bahujan Samaj Party at a huge rally held at Nalgonda and vowed to bring Bahujan Rajyam (rule of the downtrodden) and a drastic change in  Telangana politics.

Praveen Kumar’s massive show of strength was promptly highlighted in the media. Especially, the Telugu media gave him a massive coverage on the front page with the headline quoting him that he would go to Pragathi Bhavan on an elephant (election symbol of BSP) after the next elections.

Having gained tremendous influence among the Dalits due to his Swaero Movement in the last nine years, Praveen Kumar will definitely be a threat to the mainstream parties – the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, the Congress and the BJP in the next elections.

However, it all depends on his future strategies.
The retired IPS officer’s entry into active politics in Telangana has triggered a debate in the media circles as to which party would be the most affected by the BSP.

What is needed for a person who sets a goal for himself to reach his own community people first and then expand his base among other sections of people? Is it mass base or intellectual attainments in the crucial subjects of equality and social justice?  
Is there any scope for a political novice to influence the electorate without depending on money and muscle power in the present electoral scenario?  These are some of the crucial questions that are at the back of the minds of different sections of people, be it elite and marginalized, following the plunge of former IPS officer R.S. Praveen Kumar on the political firmament of Telangana State.

His joining the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), headed by former UP Chief Minister Mayawati, has raised many eyebrows as this former civil servant has begun sailing with a party with Dalit base and ideology.

Of course, Praveen has been working for the development of students from marginalized sections of society. He has always preferred to work for the students of Residential Educational Institutions Society of Social Welfare Department rather than wearing police uniform and that too on his personal request to the Chief Ministers of successive governments, right from the days of the combined state of Andhra Pradesh.

Hailing from the backward Mahabubnagar district, Praveen entered IPS and devoted himself to the service of students who come from disadvantaged sections and successfully made them pursue their higher studies in prestigious and reputed educational institutional institutions across the country.  So, strong feelings of gratitude developed in the minds of lakhs of students(fondly called 'swaeros' - combination of 'sw' for social welfare and the word 'aero' from the Greek word for the sky).

His inaugural address at Nalgonda town on the occasion of his joining BSP is considered to be a throwback to NTR's 1985 rally in the same town from where NTR contested the Assembly elections for the first time, apart from two seats viz. Gudivada (Krishna district) and Hindupur (Anantapur district).  

The overwhelming response that Praveen Kumar got in his first ever address in Nalgonda suggests that he has a smooth ride ahead when it comes to his further political moves.

According to an analyst, Praveen Kumar might eat into the vote banks of all the three major parties and the TRS would have to face the biggest brunt.

Interestingly, there is also a discussion on the impact of Praveen Kumar on the prospects of YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP), a new regional party launched by Y S Sharmila, daughter of former chief minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.

Analysts say Praveen Kumar’s entry would play a spoil sport with whatever little chances Sharmila party would have to make its presence felt in the next elections, because most of the voters Sharmila has been planning to attract might turn towards the BSP.

“Hitherto, there were some calculations that Sharmila’s party would have chances of winning half a dozen assembly seats, if not more, particularly in Khammam and Nalgonda districts.

But now, the chances are bleak for her as Praveen Kumar is focussing on polarising the SC, ST and BC voters in the state,” an analyst said.

If Sharmila has to sustain her party in the state, she has to adopt an aggressive approach, pool all her resources and come out with innovative strategies.
Otherwise, she would end up like what Jana Sena Party was in Andhra Pradesh in 2019 elections.

On the other hand, many officers from the All India Services have previously taken such a plunge into politics. But Most of them did so only after retirement. Former IPS officer PV Rangaiah Naidu entered politics shortly after his retirement and successfully contested from the Khammam Lok Sabha constituency, besides becoming a Union Minister in PV Narasimha Rao's cabinet in 1991. Another police officer and former director of CBI K.Vijayarama Rao also tried his luck in the Khairatabad Assembly seat, became victorious, and joined the Chandrababu Naidu's cabinet in 1999.

Some more leaders like Lakshminarayana (former JD, CBI), V. Dinesh Reddy (former DGP,  AP),  K.Ratna Prabha (former Chief Secretary, Karnataka) & K. Balakondaiah (former DIG,  AP)  unsuccessfully contested from Lok Sabha seats and decided to keep themselves away from active politics later.

Most civil servants enters politics through a party with a strong base and strong chances of capturing power so that they could get plum posts post elections. Praveen Kumar is different. The party he joined has no base in Telangana. It has no history of getting sizeable votes anywhere in the state, even in combined Andhra Pradesh. There have been only two occasions when BSP nominees got elected to Assembly. BSP candidate L. Raja  Rao  was elected to the Assembly from Visakhapat-nam district in the 2004  elections, largely due to his personal image.

Interestingly there were 10 registered parties in the 2004 Assembly elections. Two Congress leaders A.Indrakaran Reddy and Koneru Konappa got elected to the Assembly from Nirmal & Sirpur Kagaznagar respectively on BSP tickets, as they could not get tickets from their parent party. But they joined ruling TRS, in the name of merger, for better political prospects. Indrakaran is now Minister for Endowments in K.Chandrasekhar Rao's cabinet.

Praveen has a tough agenda. He will find it difficult to keep the SCs united. Everybody knows that the issue of categorisation of quota for SCs has created a wedge in sub-castes of SCs.

There is a strong link between categorisation of quota for SCs and upper castes ' plans of thwarting efforts for unity among them.

Former BSP late chief Kanshi Ram had visited AP and concentrated on the elections 1994. As per his assessment then, BSP would be the deciding factor in 100 Assembly seats and would get a considerable number of seats.

Yet, BSP failed to registered its presence in AP. Noted Dalit leader who fought for justice for the deceased in 'Karamchedu massacre' Katti Padma Rao was the only BSP nominee who got his deposit in the Bapatla Assembly seat by securing 21,000 votes.

The issue of categorisation of quota for SCs was kept alive. Every political party in Andhra Pradesh backed categorisation. Principal political parties like TDP and Congress were left with no option but to woo the members of Mala sub caste of SCs who oppose categorisation.  

Chandrababu had to propose a leader from Mala community GMC Balayogi as nominee for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker in 1998. The largest beneficiary of categorization, Madiga caste, did not hesitate to fume at Mala community for opposing the issue.

The Chandrababu government organised recruitment drives as per the new categorisation that provided government jobs for a large number of applicants from the Madiga community that has become heartburn for the opposing community. In this way, the wedge between the two principal castes of the Scheduled Castes widened and this 'divide and rule policy ' came in handy for political parties dominated by upper castes to exercise control over SCs.

Transforming whole sections SCs into an organised force is going to be an uphill task for Praveen Kumar. Since the Madiga community is predominant in Telangana State, it is simply not possible for him to bring the two castes together.
Praveen may be pressurized to field party nominee in the forthcoming Huzurabad bypolls, though BSP has no strength there.

Preparing the party for the big electoral battle of 2023 may be an ideal programme for Praveen. A lot of money will be required for electoral battle and maintenance of a statewide organization.

People will be curious to see how he gets heaps of currency bundles without getting patronage of corporate giants! Only time will tell whether he will be a calf among lions (TRS, Congress & BJP) or a mighty 'elephant' among the same! #KhabarLive #hydnews

India’s Pioneering Women Qazis Ask Muslim Men: Have You Read The Quran?

Newly trained women Islamic clerics, or Qazis, have started work in towns across India, offering an invaluable support system to Muslim women, and inviting opposition from orthodox circles.

Iqra's world fell apart in six months.

In her telling, it began, as it often does, with marriage. The 23-year-old's marriage to Ali was an exchange programme of sorts. Ali was her cousin, son of her khaala, her mother's sister. In turn, Iqra's brother married the same khaala's daughter. Her khaala also became her mother-in-law. Such marriage between first cousins is commonplace among Muslims in South Asia.

Animal Rights Activists Face Cattle Smugglers’ Ire

While incidents of violence purported by cow vigilantes hit the headlines, what has gone relatively unnoticed is an ever increasing spate of attacks on animal rights activists who dared to take on the smugglers of cattle and other animals.

Some of these activists, whom INNLIVE interviewed, said there is little organised resistance to the illegal trade of meat, as vigilance at the sale points and at the highways remains lax.

Now, It's Time For Cowpathy - A startup Is Looking To Rule India’s Cow Economy With Dung Soap And Urine Toothpaste

A cow is silhouetted in front of manure at the farm owned by French farmer Franck Pellerin (not pictured) in La Chapelle-Caro, central Brittany, France, September 2, 2015.

You’ve heard of ayurveda, the traditional Indian medical science. So have you about Unani, the Perso-Arabic healing science. Then there is homeopathy.

Now prepare for Cowpathy.

No, it is not a whole new medical system. It is a Mumbai-based company that makes consumer products said to have high medicinal value and completely based on the cow—it uses ingredients such as dung, urine, clarified butter or ghee, and others.

What Cow-Loving India Should Focus On: Making More Fodder Available To Starving Cattle

With forests overrun by weed and other unwanted growth, free-grazing lifestock face a grim situation.

Much passion is now generated in our country on the subject of protecting cattle. However, a dispassionate narration of the reality about the fodder situation for them seems to be largely missing. There are 108 million adult female cows in a cattle population of 200 million, according to the National Dairy Development Board. In addition, there are about 100 million buffaloes in the country.

The Harsh Reasons These Housewives In Bangalore Chose To Become Sex Workers

Editor’s note: For decades, sex workers in India have been pushed to the margins, forced to deal with shame and stigma from society. ‘Unheard Stories’ is a series of stories by INNLIVE that aims to bring these narratives to the fore, to build a more inclusive and accepting society.

“I am illiterate and unskilled. I need money to run my household. Now, this (sex work) is my job and I am proud of it as I have sacrificed a lot for my family,” says Jaya Prabha (name changed) with a stoic face. For her, sex work is a lesser evil than watching her children starve.

Drought-led migration makes girls prey to trafficking, pushes Andhra Pradesh's Kadiri towards HIV/AIDS

Dr Mano Ranjan has been working at the Institute of Infectious Diseases situated on the Anantapur-Kadiri Road in Andhra Pradesh since 2009. This is the premier institute for the entire Rayalaseema region (southern Andhra Pradesh) for those suffering from HIV/AIDS. Dr Ranjan gets 25 new HIV/AIDS patients every day. "It is a ticking time bomb," he says.

Thirty percent of the cases are from hamlets in and around Kadiri, unarguably the HIV/AIDS capital of Andhra Pradesh. The hospital has 26,000 plus registered cases, 8,000 of whom are widows. It is shocking that most of the victims are in the age group of 25 to 40. Another 3,000 cases are children born most often to an HIV-positive parent.

Will Superstar Rajinikanth finally enter politics?

His failure to live up to the expectations he often builds up has made such speculation a sort of amusement.

“Naa eppo varuven eppadi varuven nu yarukum theriyathu
aana varavendiya tithula correct ah varuven”
(No one knows when and how I will enter. But I will enter at the right time)

This was Rajinikanth’s legendary punchline in the 1995 blockbuster Muthu.

Bras with metal hooks, dark pants banned? CBSE dress code for medical test aspirants is ambiguous

It bans metallic objects. But does that justify making an exam-taker take off her bra because it has a metal hook?

“Is it possible for me to hide an electronic device on the tiny metal hook of my underwear. Should women invigilators be aware of this?” This was the question raised by a girl who was forced to take off her bra before appearing for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test – a highly competitive examination for admission to medical and dental colleges for the undergraduate MBBS and BDS courses – in Kerala’s Kannur district, recently.

Farmers in Telangana’s tur belt don’t know whether they should grow the pulse this year

Constant swing in prices of the dal and tardy implementation of the government’s procurement mechanism have made life tough for farmers. 

Husnabad and Kadangal are just 110 km from the cyber city of Hyderabad. In the last week of March, it was a beginning of a long dry spell, with temperatures hovering around the 40-degree Celsius mark. The Kharif season of 2016 had ended. The villages wore a lazy look. Given the perennial water scarcity in the region, most of the fields were dry. Nothing could be cultivated after the autumn harvest except for a few patches where summer paddy was visible, thanks to some irrigation from private bore wells.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh Reel Under Heatwave, But Petty Politics Takes Centrestage

As the mercury soared to a new 10-year record of 43 degrees Celsius in Hyderabad recently – a heatwave for the third consecutive year — the demand for spicy buttermilk or masala majiga too soared. This product of Heritage, a unit owned by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, notched an all-time high business of nearly 12 lakh sachets being sold by 17 April. It also kicked off a political satire on social media that summer did not take note of bifurcation of state and that it did not differentiate between people of Telangana and Andhra.

RERA Myths Busted: No Big Relief For Stuck Home Buyers, House Prices Won't Rise

The dust has finally settled on RERA or the Real Estate Regulation & Development Act. From Monday (1 May 2017) it comes into force across India, and the day will be remembered as a special day for home buyers who have been committing the largest chunk of their life savings to an industry which has been free for all.

A press release from the Housing Ministry stated how this day marks the end of a 9-year-long wait; and for the first time 76,000 companies engaged in building and construction activities across the country will become accountable for quality and delivery. Union Minister for Housing Venkaiah Naidu in his tweets called it the beginning of a new era making buyer the king, while the developers benefit from the confidence of a King in the regulated environment.

The Indian dogs that are dying out because everyone wants a Labrado

It’s easy to identify what a German Shepherd, Labrador, and Saint Bernard have in common: they’re furry, adorable canine companions with massive fan bases all over the world. But what about the Chippiparai, Jonangi, and Kombai?

Even ardent animal lovers might stumble a bit here, but these too are dog breeds which have another thing in common—they’re all Indian. Skilled, sturdy, and well adapted to the country’s tropical climate, these dogs are great workers and excellent companions. Unfortunately, the other characteristic Indian breeds share is that they’re disappearing.

Earthy, Caustic, Funny And Declining: Dakhani Gets Due In Documentary ‘A Tongue Untied’

The language of the Deccan, famous for its humour and literature, has been relegated to dialect status, as filmmaker Gautam Pemmaraju finds out.

Subah ki dhoop mein agar saaya lamba nazar aya, tum apney kad ke baarey mein ghalatfehmi mey mat rehna (If in the morning sun you see that your shadow is long, don’t get deluded about your height): Ghouse ‘Khamakha’ or ‘Khamakha’ Hyderabadi.

When people hear of Dakhani, they tend to associate it with the unique dialect spoken in Hyderabad, often understood by outsiders and locals as a form of hybridised Urdu. There are other associations with Dakhani too – ribald humour and wry social commentary; an idiom so earthy and direct that it might border on insult to more sensitive ears; philosophical reflections on human nature, as in the verse above.

Gautam Pemmaraju’s ambitious documentary A Tongue Untied: The Story of Dakhani explores the cultural history of the language. The production began as a grant from the Indian Foundation for the Arts in 2012 to document the tradition of humour and modern satire in performance poetry. The filmmaker soon found that mere documentation would be inadequate.

“This began as a very conventional art history project, but it has expanded slightly,” Pemmaraju said. “Very soon, the mandate expanded into not just looking at humour and satire through poetry, but at the elephant in the room, which was, ‘What is Dakhani?’ That became something I needed to tackle in order to explain everything else.”

Dakhani is far more than a dialect, he said. It is a language that developed in northern India alongside Urdu. When it moved to the Deccan plateau, it gradually developed a literary culture that lasted 350 years, from the 14th century when the language first seems to have appeared, to the early 18th, when Aurangzeb finally gained control of the Deccan.

People across the Deccan speak forms of Dakhani with regional infusions even today, from its northern reaches in Aurangabad, to Marathwada and Telangana, down southwards to the northern parts of Karnataka. There are a few Dakhani speakers in Tamil Nadu and north Kerala and in Hyderabad, there is even an entire news channel in Dakhani.

Pemmaraju is now looking to raise funds to complete the editing of A Tongue Untied.

The film will be a culmination of conversations that began nearly seven years ago. Pemmaraju began his research by meeting poets and organisers of mushairas, or forums where poets congregate to perform their art.

Everyone Pemmaraju met had different ideas of and associations with the language, many of which were stereotypes. Pemmaraju decided to bring some academic rigour to his study. He also met scholars and experts such as historians and philologists who worked with language and history to pin down what Dakhani really was and what were its origins.

“The film in that sense is an aggregation of poets and artistry on one side, and an aggregation of scholarly opinions on the other side,” he said. “What I have been attempting to do is to put these into a narrative that makes sense and gives viewers a broad picture of the language and the colour of the language.”

With 60 interviews, 70 hours of filmed footage and 40 hours of archival footage, Pemmaraju has had a difficult task cutting the film down to a viewer-friendly length. The final film will be driven by around five experts in the language as well as by poets and artists. Parts of the film are devoted simply to hearing how people in different regions speak the language today.

“What is striking immediately is the diversity of Dakhani,” Pemmaraju said. “It’s a large region, and there are many forms of the language.” There were also many interlocutors, who had a lot to say because of their deep sense of ownership and pride in the language, he added.

While Dakhani is broadly thought of as a language of Muslims, its presence across the plateau also means that there is a rich body of material available in the Devanagari script, for instance, which has not been studied well. Dakhani is also heavily influenced by Marathi, and many Persian words that appear in Dakhani seem to have travelled there via Marathi.

One of Maharashtra’s famous poet saints, Amrutray of Paithan, even wrote a Sudamacharitra, or the story of Sudama, friend of Hindu god Krishna, in Dakhani at some point during the 18th century.

Mushairas have been a crucial part of the culture of Hyderabad and areas around it for decades now. From the 1970s and ’80s, the Hyderabadi diaspora began to organise mushairas where they stayed as well, leading to such gatherings in places as disparate as Chicago and countries in the Middle East.

Zinda Dilan-e-Hyderabad, an organisation formed in the mid-1960s to promote literary activities, particularly those pertaining to humour and satire, organised the first modern mushaira at that time. The organisation’s last mushaira was in 2010, but there are other groups who still conduct them.

Senior poets and scholars all agree that the quality of poetry is declining, Pemmaraju said. The texture of poetry has also changed greatly in recent times, he added. Early poetry tended to have pithy statements about poverty and the immediate circumstances of people. There was also a fair amount of sharp satire directed at religious figures, political leaders and even at poets themselves. Now, poetry is far more political.

Take one, by Sardar Asar, a couplet in a ghazal that says:

Bam key nazdeek jaako dekha mai,
Zafrani hai, hara thodeech hai
I went near a bomb to look at it
It was hardly green – it was saffron.

“Of course there is a milieu of social conservatism [in Islam] which informs all this, but you can very clearly see the poetry has shifted from pithy folk wisdom to this direct commentary on politics,” Pemmaraju pointed out.

That said, Dakhani is ultimately a cultural history of southern India, particularly of the “Islamic encounter” south of the Narmada that is pre-Mughal. “I don’t think it’s a counterpoint between the north and the south,” the filmmaker said. “It’s not a battle. It’s looking at a vernacular region’s oral traditions which reveal to us a richer history.”

Political Vultures, Real Estate Sharks And Criminals Ganged Up To Ruin Bengaluru

By M H AHSSAN | INNLIVE

India's tech capital Bengaluru is falling apart - well, almost. A city, whose infrastructure can support just about 30 to 40 lakh people, is now home for more than double that number. In the first of a two-part series, INNLIVE traces the origins of Bengaluru's destruction which began even before the city was swamped by IT professionals.

Chennai 'Oil Leak' Contaminated Ground Water 4 Years Ago Hasn’t Been Cleaned Yet

By VINITA RAM | INNLIVE

Residents of Tondiarpet in Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s constituency say they don’t have the money to fight the case any longer and want an immediate solution.

Four years after an oil pipeline leak contaminated the groundwater in North Chennai’s Tondiarpet neighbourhood, those affected by the contamination are on the brink of despair after repeated appeals to authorities hasn’t led to a clean-up.

Swachch Bharat's Mothers, Babies In Peril: 343 Hospitals In 6 States Struggle With Hygiene, Toilets

By LIKHAVEER | INNLIVE

Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan is acheived by Modi's government but the reality is quite different,  as many as 19% of the facilities did not have wash basins near toilets and patient-care areas.

Half the post-natal wards of primary healthcare centres lacked toilets, as did 60% of larger community health centres in Madhya Pradesh, which has a higher maternal mortality rate than war-torn Syria.Open defecation was allowed within 38% and open urination in 60% of health facilities (PHCs, CHCs, area and district hospitals) in Odisha’s Ganjam district, which has the same maternal mortality rate as the impoverished African country of Gabon.

A 'Sikh' Student Beaten At Universiry Of Hyderabad By ABVP Activists After Being Mistaken As 'Kashmiri'

By LIKHAVEER| INNLIVE

The ghost of Rohith Vemula is back to haunt the campus as a new academic year begins.

“They want to keep the pot boiling” is a charge that comes up very often at the University of Hyderabad. As a new academic year begins, the fear is that July 2016 could to be headed the way of July 2015.

Opinion: Is Holding Simultaneous Elections For Lok Sabha And State Assemblies Necessarily A Good Idea?

By M H AHSSAN| INNLIVE

Will doing so address the real challenges of governing? What is the evidence from other countries?

The idea of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies has gained some ground recently. In December 2015, a parliamentary standing committee recommended a move in this direction by streamlining elections into two phases – one concurrent with Lok Sabha elections, the second in the mid-term of the Lok Sabha.